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Monday, January 14, 2013

Soft Pretzel Bites, Buns and Sausage Rolls

Game Day Pretzel Treats

Pretzels have been floating through my brain lately, real homemade soft pretzels, not the find-in-the-mall kind of pretzels. Plain pretzels, pretzel buns, pretzel bites, pretzel sausages - they all sounded tantalizingly delicious. Naturally I did the happy dance when I was assigned Growing up Gabel as my Secret Recipe Club blog for January, and found Camille's recipe for Homemade Boiled Pretzels. I added a touch of onion powder and garlic powder to the dough for extra flavor, and set to work with those recent, recurring pretzel notions.

An upcoming Super Bowl game called for easy-to-eat finger food and some substantial snacks ready for the half-time feast or any time-out nibble. Chili, gumbo or hearty soups are traditional game day fare, but mini pretzel bites, pretzel-wrapped sausages or even pretzel bun sandwiches would be a great addition to the menu. This called for some pre-game practice. That was a good call; a few adjustments were necessary. I began with precooked chorizo sausages, rolled out a few 18 to 24-inch wands of dough, and wrapped these very long strands around whole sausages and a few shorter sausage chunks as well. These meaty packages were boiled in soda-water, drained, egg-washed, salted and baked. Mmmmm, good! really good, though the oil from the chorizo soaked into the inner surface of the pretzel wrapping. It was tasty, but a little heavy. This was more evident with whole sausages than with the shorter sausage chunks. There were no leftovers, but I will choose a less oily sausage for the next batch.

Next came tightly-twisted pretzels and a few rounds of dough which baked into puffy buns. Split in half with the tops slightly scooped out to accommodate fillings, these buns made terrific sandwiches. On game day I'll set out platters of cured meats, cheeses, lettuce, onion rounds and tomatoes with a variety of mustards and horseradish spreads. Pulled pork or BBQ chicken would be other delicious choices as well as cream cheese, lox, capers and pickled red onions. Pretzel buns are such versatile bases, pairing well with almost any filling, though maybe a bit too firm for a perfect ground meat slider. Changes? no changes required, just more practice twisting the pretzels into a more uniform shape.

I'm ready to enjoy Super Bowl noshing, even though the Seahawks lost the division match-up to Atlanta. Today's various pretzel snacks were all winners; Homemade Boiled Pretzels are super snack champions.

Fully cooked sausages, spicy or bland, to wrap in dough for pretzel sausages or pretzel bites

OR meat & cheese sandwich fillings for pretzel buns

Mustards and spreads to accompany

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine water, yeast, and sugar.

Add 1 cup flour.

Add in oil and salt and 1 more cup of flour. Stir to combine.

Add enough flour to make a smooth, elastic dough (slightly tacky is fine). Knead dough a few times in the bowl.

Cover bowl and let dough rise until doubled (about 1 hour).

Pre-heat oven to 475 degrees. Grease baking sheets.

Bring the 12 cups of water to a boil in a large stock pot. SLOWLY add in baking soda (it will foam so go slow!!). Keep water simmering.

Gently punch down dough and divide in to 6 or 12 pieces (depending on size of pretzel you want).

Roll each piece of dough out to an 12-18″ rope. Shape in to pretzel shape and pinch ends to close up. OR, use a dough rope to wrap up a link or smaller piece of sausage, encasing it completely and pinching the ends to secure. Repeat with remaining dough and sausages.

Boil each pretzel for 10-15 seconds, making sure all sides are boiled.

Place pretzels on greased baking sheets, 1 inch apart.

Cover pretzels and let rest for 5 minutes.

Whisk together egg yolk and water and then brush on top of pretzels. Sprinkle salt on pretzels.

I find pretzel rolls too dense for burgers, you end up with a real belly bomb. Try the Burger Buns I posted on Nov 9, 2011. Found on Annie'sEats, adapted from SmittenKitchen, from an article in the New York Times, and developed at Comme Ca, a Los Angeles restaurant. How's that for a pedigree?